Jeanne Hyland ’71 is an award-winning artist whose still lifes, nudes, and portraits are currently on display at City of Brea Art Gallery and EXPO New Mexico in Albuquerque. She received a BFA (magna cum laude) in figure sculpture and watercolor from the University of New Hampshire and studied at École des Beaux Arts, St. Etienne, France. As someone who has enjoyed making and creating since grade school, Ms. Hyland says she has a constantly evolving style that is heavily influenced by her teaching. And to all those budding artists out there, Ms. Hyland notes that watercolor paintings are not as hard as they seem.
“Watercolor is SUCH a flexible painting medium,” she notes. “I’ve developed a way to keep the watercolor “workable” for hours, and you can also then rehydrate the paint later on to make changes.”
1. You have been teaching art workshops all over the world. Can you tell us how you first got interested in art and how did your career in art begin? How much does your teaching influence your own art?
It seems that I just naturally was good at it right from the start. I was very good at all the hand manipulation “intelligence” tests in early nursery school! And I enjoyed fiddling with paints, pencils, arranging flowers…very quiet and self-directed activities. And I had a fabulous art teacher in grade school and beyond. I can see now that she had great projects and entered us in Scholastic Art Awards. I got lots of attention early on for being good at it—that certainly encouraged me to continue and I enjoy making things. I got terrible marks in handwriting in grade school… guess my cursive was a little too wild. I still like to “make stuff.”